Poverty is having a devastating impact on the education and development of the youngest children in Wales.

Tens of thousands of under-fives are living in poverty. Around a third are falling behind at age five and may never catch up with classmates, a report published today reveals.

Nearly half of children in povertywho are behind at age five remain in the lowest performing group at age seven, 11 and 14, says Save the Children.

Across Wales, almost one in three or 200,000 children aged 0 to 16 live in poverty – of those more than one in four (28% or just over 50,000) are under five, the charity’s latest analysis from last November shows.

“The figure has remained stubbornly static for the last decade and is the highest rate of child poverty of any country in the UK.

“By the time they start school, children experiencing poverty are often already falling behind their better-off peers. As they get older, this education gap widens and can leave them at an unfair disadvantage. It is a huge challenge for children, teachers and parents.”

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Even government schemes set up to help them may not be reaching some children, Save the Children says.

Flying Start is described by the government as “one of our top priorities in our Tackling Poverty agenda.”

Save the Children’s report Little Pieces. Big Picture, launched at Millbrook Primary, Newport today, shows that by age five around a third of children living in poverty (30-35%) are already falling behind across a range of key milestones such as language skills and problem solving, compared to one fifth (20-21%) of their peers.

The research also shows that falling behind in the early years means it’s more likely children will struggle throughout their education. Nearly half of children who were in the lowest performing group at the beginning of primary school were also behind at ages 7,11 and 14.

“Whilst acknowledging Welsh Government has committed to supporting children and their families by announcing plans to grow and develop a highly skilled child care workforce and offer a range of initiatives providing several hours of free child care to many families, Save the Children is still concerned that access to high quality early years provision and support is still often left to chance for too many children in Wales,” the charity said.

“Often services are not available to all families in every area of Wales with new analysis showing that nearly half (45%) of children living in poverty in are not eligible for Flying Start, the early years programme for families living in disadvantaged communities in Wales.

“Further support is also needed for parents who are facing increasing pressures from changes to the economy and the welfare system and to those who are using informal child care or nor accessing formal early education services, to help them give their child the best start during their early years.”

Nearly 50% of children in poverty who are behind at five remain in the lowest performing group at age seven, 11 and 14 (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

Save the Children is calling on the Welsh Government to:

Deliver a single, simple and coherent system for high quality early education and care.

Ensure equal access to high quality early childhood education and care for all children in Wales with a specific focus on providing additional support to children living in poverty.

Louise Davies, head of Save the Children in Wales said: “We all want children to have the best start in life, to be happy and have every opportunity to begin their learning journey positively.

“We know how vital early childhood is for a child’s development and the role it plays in shaping the kind of people we grow up to be. But sadly too many children in Wales, particularly the poorest, are already struggling by the time they start school and that, crucially, many never catch up.

“In Wales we have many parts of the jigsaw available to provide a great start in a child’s life, but there are pieces missing or misplaced making it difficult for us to complete the bigger picture.”

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A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We welcome the report by Save the Children. Breaking the cycle of deprivation and poverty is a long term commitment for this government, and we fully recognise the fundamental importance of early years in achieving this. In Prosperity for All, we have set out our vision for early years and key actions during this Assembly to ensure children in Wales from all backgrounds have the best start in life.

“As the report recognises, we have invested in a wide range of early years programmes. However, we need to ensure all programmes and services for the early years come together seamlessly to get the best value for parents and children, from the limited resources available. Prosperity for All includes a specific commitment to address this by creating “a more joined up, responsive system that puts the unique needs of each child at its heart.”